India’s defence exports more than double
Published: The Economic Times

18 Jun 2019

India’s defence exports have more than doubled to nearly Rs 11,000 crore on the back of recent policy liberalisation and access to the US market, given a large amount of offsets being executed by domestic companies.
The increase in defence exports — to Rs 10,745 crore in 2018-19 from Rs 4,682 crore in 2017-18 — is expected to move up exponentially, with the Rajnath Singh-led defence ministry going ahead with a new general export licence plan. It will enable Indian companies to export certain equipment to identified nations.Click here to read...

India to overtake China as most populous country in next 8 years: UN
Published: Hindustan Times

18 Jun 2019

The world’s population will increase to 9.7 billion by 2050, going up by 2 bn from the earlier 7.7 bn, shows a new United Nations report launched on Monday. The global population could reach its peak around the end of the current century, with an estimated population of 11 bn.
India is projected to overtake China as the world’s most populous country in next 8 years, according to the report. The global fertility rate, which fell from 3.2 births per woman in 1990 to 2.5 in 2019, will decline further to 2.2 in 2050. India’s current total fertility rate stands at 2.2 births per woman.Click here to read...

Pakistan-trained terror group is top threat to China
Published: Hindustan Times

18 Jun 2019

As India and China continue consultations on the situation in Afghanistan, Beijing perceives Pakistan-trained cadres of the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) as the biggest threat to its security interests, people familiar with developments said.
ETIM, along with Lashkar-eTaiba and the Haqqani Network, was recently named by the US department of defense among the three terror groups posing the greatest threat to foreign troops in Afghanistan. In a report covering the first quarter of the year, the US estimated ETIM had 100 fighters in the war-torn country.Click here to read...

22-yr-old Pakistani blogger, journalist known for criticising Army hacked to death
Published: The Asian Age

17 Jun 2019

A 22-year-old Pakistani blogger and journalist known for criticising the country's military and the spy agency ISI was killed by a man in Islamabad, the police said on Monday.
Muhammad Bilal Khan, having over 16,000 followers on Twitter, 48,000 on his YouTube channel and 22,000 on Facebook, was with a friend on Sunday night when he received a phone called to go from the Bara Kahu area in Islamabad to G-9, where a man took him into the forest, Dawn news quoted the police as saying.Click here to read...

The overall number of nuclear warheads in the world has declined in the past year but nations are modernising their arsenals, a report published Monday said.
At the start of 2019, the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea had a total of some 13,865 nuclear weapons, according to estimates in a new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).Click here to read...

In relief to India, Maldives may scrap ocean deal with China
Published: The Economic Times

17 Jun 2019

An agreement China signed with the Maldives to build an observatory in the Indian Ocean is likely to be scrapped, as India’s relations with its maritime neighbour enter a purple patch following the exit of former Maldivian president Abdulla Yameen. Top local government sources in Male told ToI that the agreement Yameen signed with China in 2017, which raised a security alarm in India, is ``not on the table’’.
Titled Protocol on Establishment of Joint Ocean Observation Station, the agreement was meant to allow China to construct an observatory at Makunudhoo, the westernmost atoll of the Maldives in the north.Click here to read...